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UU Connection

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Hi! My name is cameron, and I am thrilled to invite you to contribute to a faith-building, multicultural project I call Color/Full.

As a young convertee to Unitarian Universalism, I have attended 3 General Assemblies so far. This photography project is an extension of the creative outreach I’ve done to UUs of Color in the last three years. Please view my previous work here: https://www.facebook.com/cameronwhittenpdx/media_set?set=a.10207994556582191.1073741837.1846435264&type=3

If you’d like more details about Color/Full and why it matters, please read below. And please, please share this link and DONATE!

Color/Full project mission:

To honor Unitarian Universalists of Color through creative vehicles that highlight their beauty and their stories, and provide a compelling, alternative vision of what the future of the Unitarian Universalist community can look like.

Why it matters:

Since the founding of the Unitarian and Universalist faiths, white culture has been accepted as the norm in both the structure and spirit of the church. While many people of color are inspired by the message and values of Unitarian Universalism, those who choose to belong to Unitarian Universalism are typically expected to assimilate into white culture. This lack of space for diversity and self-determination often leaves people of color feeling invisible and isolated, and has led to many people of color to abandon any formal affiliation with Unitarian Universalism. There remains so much work to be done on racial justice — and it is critical for UUs of color to have a sense of agency and empowerment in this work.

Color/Full is a photovoice project that provides an authentic path for creative and spiritually driven action on racial justice in the Unitarian Universalist tradition, with a mission to create lasting change on the individual, cultural, and institutional level. Through the confluence of photography, community engagement, and storytelling, this project creates a venue to honor and affirm the presence, experiences, and cultures of UUs of color.

Our Unitarian Universalist Principles call us to affirm the inherent worth and dignity of each person and to uphold justice, equity, and compassion in all human relations. Color/Full is a promising opportunity to promote a multicultural UUism that decenters whiteness and helps us get closer to making our core principles a reality.

Objectives:

To publish 300 photos, names, and transcribed stories of UUs of color that attend the 2018 General Assembly, posted on a Facebook page and website created exclusively to promote this project.

To support the new UUs of color to grow in comfort with the UU faith community.

To build confidence, excitement, and community among new, current, and former UUs of color.

To raise the visibility of UUs of color and encourage understanding and solidarity with the struggles of UUs of color.

To shift Unitarian Universalist Association policies that are either adopted or in consideration in regards to reconciliation on racial justice.

Updates

We made it to 50% of the fundraising goal! Huge thanks to everyone who has donated and shared the Faithify link so far.

General Assembly just ended Sunday, and today I officially published the Color/Full website, complete with 123 stories from Black, Brown, and Indigenous UU and UU-adjacent people that I met in Kansas City. Check out the collection here!

This project was done out of love for our UU community. However, I am currently unemployed and the costs of doing this project was a significant financial burden. Success of this Faithify campaign is CRUCIAL, which will allow me to mitigate a small portion of my expenses.

Project UU Connection

I’m thrilled to attend the 2018 Unitarian Universalist General Assembly. I moved to Portland in 2009 when I was eighteen years old, and have pretty much identified as a Unitarian Universalist ever since. Since I first discovered the church during adulthood, I’ve missed a lot of understanding and connection to the UU community at large. My first General Assembly was in 2015, in Portland, Oregon, and it was an electrifying spiritual event. Some of my favorite moments include connecting with the Diverse Revolutionary Unitarian Multicultural Ministries (DRUMM) to the profound Sunday service.

I am thrilled to have the opportunity to attend my fourth UU General Assembly and to continue to deepen my relationships with UUs near and far. Being a low-income, person of color who graduated last year with a Bachelor’s of Arts in Economics, I don’t have access to the resources that would allow me to safely cover the travel and per diem expenses for the General Assembly in Kansas City.

My involvement with the Unitarian Universalist Church provides many important conversations around the topic of race. Growing up in a middle-class white suburb, I recognize the privilege that I’ve grown up with, which has made me shielded from, and a perpetrator of racism in many ways. Being a black man in the whitest major city in America, I'm reminded daily—daily—what it's like to be looked at as if you're different, other, and less. In addition to being a queer identifying, vegetarian cyclist, I contribute a number of diverse perspectives that I believe this program would benefit from.

I volunteer with a number of local Portland organizations, including REACH Community Development Corporation, Right 2 Dream Too, the City Club of Portland, and the Welcome Home Coalition. My volunteer work includes coalition building, grassroots organizing, political strategy, fundraising, and communications.

I have also worked with my local Unitarian Church, First Unitarian Church of Portland, to discuss the intersecting identities of faith and race through a 5-week equity training called 'Engaging Race.' This is what Church leadership had to say about my training:

It has been a delight working with Cameron. Last Fall, we asked Cameron if he would develop a course to be offered at First Unitarian Church on engaging conversations about racism and helping white people develop skills and capacity for anti-racist activism. In addition to creating the 5-week class, he led a 90-minute workshop to give potential cohort members a taste of his training style and racial justice perspective. Cameron's style is honest, compassionate, relational, collaborative and respectful. He has a keen attention to detail while also holding a holistic vision and understanding of how to engage peoples' practical participation in the moral and spiritual work of anti-racism. I appreciate Cameron's integrity in addressing racism in the moment while staying in relationship with people toward the goal of transformation.

Working with Cameron to arrange the logistics has been easy because he is quick to respond to questions, is organized and intentional as well as being flexible to respond to the real-life questions and issues that arise in offering the important content. We are excited to explore ways that we can continue to work with and learn from Cameron's lived experience and perspective as well as his training expertise.

Dana Buhl

Social Justice Director, First Unitarian Church of Portland

In my work life, I currently serve as the unpaid Lead Advocate at a nonprofit called Brown Hope. Brown Hope operates as a community solution to racial justice, providing a bold vision of how to create platforms for Black, Brown, and Indigenous people to be seen, to love, and to lead. They've already hosted their first Reparations Power Hour, a monthly event for the nourishment, healing, and empowerment of Black, Brown, and Indigenous people in Portland.

By attending the UUA 2018 General Assembly, I want to continue to work towards a more just future through the exploration of my budding Unitarian Universalist faith. Please consider a contribution to this faithify project to help me achieve this goal.